^HH PRINCIPLES OP MUSPIIM ADMINISTRATION/ 



By Georgk Brown Goode, 



Assistant Secretary, Smiihsonian Institution, in charge of the United States National 

 Museum; Member, National Academy of Sciences ; America Philosopliical So- 

 ciety; American Society of Naturalists ; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences; Corresponding Member, American Institute of Architects ; Societk des 

 Amis des Sciences Naturelles, Moscow; Societe Zoologique, France; Zoological 

 Society of London, 



ANALYSIS. 



Introduction. 

 I. The museum and its relationships. 

 II. The resposibilities and requirements of museums. 



III. The five cardinal necessities in museum administration. 



IV. The classification of museums. 



V. The uses of specimens and collections. 



VI. The preservation and preparation of museum materials. 



VII. The art of installation. 



VIII. Records, catalogues, and specimen labels. 



IX. Exhibition labels and their functions. 



X. Guides and lecturers ; handbooks and reference books. 



XI. The future of museum work. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In an article on The use and abuse of museums, written nearly 

 fifteen years ago by Professor William Stanley Jevons, it was stated that 

 there was not at that time in the English language a treatise analyzing 

 the purposes and kinds of museums and discussing the general principles 

 of their management and economy. It is somewhat surprising that the 

 lack then made so evident has not since been supplied and that there is 

 not at the present day such a treatise in the English or any other lan- 

 guage. Many important papers have in the interval been printed in 

 regard to partictilar classes of museums and special branches of museum 

 work. Notable among these have been the addresses by Sir William H. 

 Flower on the uses and conduct of natural-history museums. Among 

 the especially significant general papers which had previously been 



' Reprinted from the Annual Report of the Museums Association, 1895. 



195 



